


Self Righteous Canary: Welcome Back

by dildosalad (galacticCannibal22)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Bittersweet, Drabble, M/M, Returning Home, Small Towns, mentions of others - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 19:38:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8591092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galacticCannibal22/pseuds/dildosalad
Summary: Karkat returned home to the small town he grew up in just to see his best friend whom he realized he had feelings for as he boarded the plane back to Michigan.  He doesn't know what to say, but it's good to see his face again. Maybe he will muster up the courage to make things right.





	

**Author's Note:**

> something to help me get back into writing

It was a cold and clear that morning, and yet as the day went on the clouds rolled in and the sky went grey. There were no leaves on the trees nor on the ground. Everything was incredibly bare and melancholic. 

At least, that's how he saw it.

With a sharp inhale, Karkat stared at the people spilling out of the doors to the large ominous building. Every face was blurred and the same, expressionless or if anything, unemotional. The building itself was faded in color, the once bright orange now a grimy yellow. The brick was flaking off along the sides and there was a large crack filing up the outermost right column. The flowers surrounding the entrance were dead like every other plant in town. No one else seemed to notice the man smoking a cigarette beside the 'Welcome' sign. 

Taking another deep drag, Karkat flicked the last of the ash off the end and tossed it on the sidewalk without a second thought. His mind was somewhere else. Person after person, he waited, eyes searching each bland face for the one he was looking for. Just as he was about to pull out his phone to check the time, a bright flash of yellow caught his eye. Out came the door was who he was waiting for.

Sollux.

Sollux was tall, but not unreasonably so. He was sure to tower over most girls that he stood next to, but he certainly was never the tallest in any room. The most noticeable feature about him, beside his eyes of course, was the lanky, awkwardness that enraptured his limbs and way of movement. He was far from graceful but it was always amusing to watch him move. Every gesture was hesitant or too enthusiastic, like he couldn't decide if he was shy or an extrovert. Among the sea of people around him, he was the brightest. It wasn't just the vibrant canary parka snug around his thin chest, but his face as well. It was refreshing and bright as if it were the only light in the whole town.

Something in Karkat's heart twitched.

The young man's eyes met his and for a brief moment it felt as if the whole world had stopped. Everything was in slow motion and incredibly quiet, yet at the same time Karkat's blood rushed in his ears and it was like he could barely hear the flapping of a butterfly's wings underneath the rhythmic pounding of his heart. There were blurs of people around him, moving, running. He saw nothing but yellow in a crowd of grey.  

Karkat barely noticed that Sollux had made his way over and had said something. He had one eyebrow raised as his eyes scanned over Karkat's dazed face, waiting for an answer.

"Kk? Jeez, lay off the drugs man. You're barely there," Sollux muttered, waving a gloved hand in his face. His lisp was gone.  
  
"Where did your lisp go?" Karkat spilled out without meaning to.

Sollux made a noise in the back of his throat, "Hell, probably. I finished speech therapy a few weeks ago, I wear a retainer at night sometimes." While he was speaking, Karkat got a glimpse of his teeth which were a lot straighter and whiter than he remembered. "Where did your angry tone go?"  
  
"My angry tone? What the fuck d'you mean by that?" He bristled up more than he meant to, there was something a little condescending in Sollux's voice that set his own teeth on edge.   
  
Sollux smiled, "There he is, there's my Kk."   
  
My Kk, not just Kk. Karkat felt sick to his stomach then, as if his heart plummeted down into his guts and twisting like a forty foot drop. A cold sweat ran down the length of his back and his hands and face felt too warm to be normal. Sollux seemed to have noticed.

"Are you okay?" His voice softened even more so, just barely over a whisper. It was like it had been ages since he had last talked.  
  
"I'm fine, just..jet lag I guess. Tired."   
  
Sollux looked skeptical but followed along, he wasn't stupid. "When did you fly in from New York? I thought you'd never come back to this shit hole."  
  
Ah, the question he was dreading. Karkat swallowed dryly, tongue swiping over his dry lips before mustering up a reply, "I flew in yesterday morning. I..didn't really expect to be here again either, but shit happens I guess."  
  
"Shit happens." Sollux hummed in agreement, a small smile playing at his lips. "I missed you."  
  
"I..missed you, too." Karkat choked out, perhaps too emotional for his liking.  
  
"Nah, you were too busy playing it big time in the city, don't lie to me. I bet it was a blast..I wish I could get outta here but we both know how that went the first time." Sollux let out a weak chuckle.  
  
He was referring back to Junior year of high school when he had run away with a backpack full of nothing but electronics and string cheese. _"You should come with me,"_ He said the night before,  _"We could travel the world together."_ Karkat had declined, too much of a pussy to agree with such a crazy statement. That didn't stop Sollux though, as he left that next morning on the train heading to Toronto. That was the biggest thing that had ever happened to this town since Aradia Megido's death two years previous. They said it was his way of coping, that the town was suffocating him like it was to the rest of them. Sollux never fully explained why he did run, just stated that he hated the community and needed fresh air. But Karkat could see the sadness that stirred inside his friend. He was suffering. 

Sollux was missing for three weeks before the police were called in at a local bar because of a severely drunk adolescent causing a scene. He was dragged home where the excitement of his story died as quickly as the fresh flowers the town planted at city hall did. He became just a face among the rows of others in the high school yearbooks with no real accomplishments or popularity.  
  
But that didn't stop him from standing out in Karkat's eyes.   
  
"You could always leave you know," He replied, "What's keeping you?"  
  
Sollux's face broke into a full smile, eyes crinkling up as his teeth glinted in the small amount of light the sun bothered to give. He readjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose, eyes looking everywhere but at Karkat, "Lot's of things really." He tilted his head up then, blinking up at the sky as the clouds remained still. It was like he was searching for some sign for rain or snow, but the hope for anything other than stale wind and a temperature higher than thirty-six Fahrenheit was useless. Still, that gleam of hope in his eyes made Karkat's chest fill with warmth. "Mainly..There's this girl here. She is really loud and too nice to be living in a place like this. She lives on Royal Avenue in the big white house near the good looking neighborhoods. She's been the only one really talking to me since you left. I was..scared that if I ran away again that I'd be alone." Sollux paused, glancing back at Karkat, "I was..afraid that you'd come back and I'd be gone. I'm glad I didn't leave."  
  
Karkat felt his fingers twitch towards his coat pocket, the sudden desire for a cigarette overwhelming his senses. He didn't know what to say that would be comforting, but he knew he didn't have to really say anything at all. Sollux knew how he felt, he wasn't stupid. To break the pregnant silence that soon followed Sollux's response, Karkat coughed before tilting his head to the right and saying that familiar phrase he has used to get out of emotional situations just like these countless times before: "Wanna go get something to eat?"  
  
Sollux let out a content sigh, "Yeah, I'd like that."


End file.
